In some kinds of books, one or more pages of the book are provided with special printing, graphics and other processing. Often, the processing occurs on the page(s) prior to the sheets being assembled with other sheets and bound to form the book. In certain books, the processing on a page may occur after the sheets of the book have been assembled and bound. In this situation, the book must be opened to the correct page on which the processing is to occur.
For example, with a passport, it is often desirable to process a specific page of the passport, for example by personalizing the page with information, for example a photograph or name of the intended passport holder, unique to the intended passport holder. In addition, it is sometimes necessary to put a label on a page, insert a loose sheet, or count the sheets/pages to verify the construction or type of the passport.
In some known machines, a passport is presented by hand to the machine, with the passport opened by the machine operator to the appropriate page for processing on that page. These machines have limited throughput capability, as well as security issues and increased error rates due to operator interaction and handling of the passport, making them inadequate for secure, high volume production of passports. Many of these known machines are also provided with an internal sheet turning mechanism for turning a sheet of the passport if processing needs to occur on a page of the passport that is different than the initially processed page.
Efforts have been made to automatically process passports in a faster time, with minimal, or no, intervention and handling by an operator by designing a machine that will automatically open a passport to the correct page to be processed. Automatic processing results in faster production time, reduced operator error, improved security, and reduced production costs. Any system that is intended to automatically process passports must take into account the unique characteristics of a passport, such as preexisting serialization or printed information, security features, information placement on different pages, and the different number of pages or sheets that are present in passports.
One example of a system that can automatically process passports is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,783,067, assigned to DataCard Corporation, the assignee of the present application. The system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,783,067 includes laser engraving capability as well as leafing (i.e. sheet turning) capability. This permits the passport to be introduced into the machine in a closed state, with the machine then opening the passport to the appropriate page for personalization. The machine is fully automated, thereby enabling operation with minimal or no intervention and handling of the passports by an operator, as well as enabling significantly higher rates of passport production.
In passports, the sheets may be made of various materials that result in differing physical properties such as stiffness. Many conventional leafing mechanisms use rollers in order to turn the sheets. However, rollers have great difficulty in turning sheets that are stiff (such as a cover sheet or a plastic sheet), or can damage sheets by bending them too sharply thereby leaving a permanent crease in the sheet or damaging an integrated circuit embedded in the sheet.
Continued improvements in systems that can automatically open multiple sheet, bound books to the correct page for subsequent processing are desirable.